Maybe I should become a spy and disappear off the planet.
That potential job was going back on the list.
“Knock, knock.” Mom’s beaming face appeared in my doorway. She and Dad had just gotten home from the diner an hour ago. The little stray hairs that had escaped her bun were plastered to her face. There was a tired glint in her eyes and a wearied droop to her shoulders, but that didn’t keep her from coming over to pull me into a hug. “I’ve missed you, baby girl. How are you holding up?”
“I’m okay.” I rolled over on the bed to look up at her, all of my worries momentarily pushed aside except for one. “How are you? Does your heart feel okay? How’s your blood pressure?”
She laughed and reached over to stroke my hair. “I’m doing fine. You know I make sure not to overexert myself. You don’t have to worry about me so much.”
“But you guys have been so busy lately.” I pushed myself up on my elbow. “I just don’t want you to end up in the hospital again.”
Frown lines appeared around her mouth. She tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and softly patted my shoulder. “Mandy, I’m going to do everything within my power to make sure that never happens again. Now that we know I have this heart problem, we can better prepare. If I ever feel like I’m going down that path, I promise to step back from the diner. Does that make you feel better?”
I nodded and stared down at my hands. Nothing could ever erase the trauma I’d felt seeing my mom hooked up to all those machines in the hospital. She’d looked so frail and tiny. My mom was an energetic, lively person who lit up every room she walked into. That was how I always wanted her to be.
“I know you’ve been taking up the slack around here with your dad and me working so late at the restaurant,” Mom said, looking around at my tidy room. “Thank you for that. You’re the best oldest daughter a mom could ask for. I promise, things will slow down very soon and go back to normal. Just like your ankle.”
I shot her a tight-lipped smile. I believed her when she said things for the diner would go back to normal, but I wasn’t so sure about my ankle. Or my life in general. The last two weeks had made everything spin out of control. I wasn’t sure what my future held anymore. It would’ve been nice to have some kind of supernatural roadmap to lead me through it.
Mom stifled a yawn and then patted me on the shoulder again. “We’re headed to bed. We’ve got to open in the morning. You’ll make sure your sister gets home okay?”
I nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it handled. Love you.”
She gave me a smile as she headed toward the door. “Love you, too, sweetie. Good night.”
As soon as she was gone, all the worries I’d been ignoring came rushing back. I rolled onto my back, groaning at the ceiling. My thumb slowly traced the spot on my palm where Jayden had kissed me. It felt like I’d been branded with an invisible mark. The sensation of his lips against my skin was never going to go away—and I wasn’t sure I wanted it to.
My phone began to ring at that moment, so I flipped back over to my stomach to answer it. A pang of panic went through me when I saw Jayden’s name appear on the screen. Could he sense that I’d been thinking about him? It was kind of freaking me out.
Against my better judgment, I answered it and held it up to my ear. Immediately, the noisy and scattered background sound of a party in full motion came through the speaker. I grimaced and hoped this wasn’t some kind of butt-dial. My heart couldn’t take the strain of seeing his name randomly pop up on my phone during the night.
“Mandy?” Jayden’s voice chased away my worries about a butt-dial. “Are you there?”
“Hey.” I tried to sound nonchalant and cool, as if I hadn’t just been going over every little detail of the last hour we’d spent together. “What’s up?”
“You’d better get over here and pick your sister up. She’s not looking too good.”
I sat straight up on my bed, my heart beginning to race. “What do you mean? What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but I think she’s been—” Cheers in the background drowned out some of his response. “—and she can’t walk. Her friends went to another party, but don’t worry, I’m keeping an eye on her. I won’t let her leave. See you soon.”
It didn’t matter that I only had part of the story or that Jayden hung up suddenly. I sprang into action, grabbing the keys to the van and my purse from the nightstand. Mom’s van did record time over to Savannah’s house. My heart threatened to burst the entire way over there, but somehow, I made it there.
Cars were parked all along the street and in the driveway, but I managed to find a spot right in front of the house. When I jumped out of the van, the sound of my name directed me toward the far side of the wraparound porch, where Jayden waved at me in the half-dark.
“We’re over here.” He waved again as I started toward him.
Despite my intense worry for my baby sister, my gut clenched at the sight of Jayden, still wearing the outfit from our date. He looked incredibly good, as if he hadn’t been tossing and turning all evening like me pondering the mysteries of the opposite sex. I, on the other hand, had shed my dress the moment I got home and changed into a hoodie with yoga pants. Despite my hopes, it still hadn’t wiped away the embarrassment of our last meeting.
“What’s going on?” I asked, scrambling up the steps to the porch and walking toward him.
He stood next to a swing that swayed gently back and forth. When I got closer, I could see someone sitting on it, their feet up on the bench and their arms wrapped tightly around their legs. The telltale sign of long wavy brown hair draped over her face clued me in on the location of my sister. And when she finally looked up at me, the goofy unfocused smile on her face also hinted at what Jayden had been trying to tell me on the phone.
“Mandy.” Charlotte spread her arms wide and nearly fell out of the swing. She staggered up to me and pulled me in a hug, giggling into my shoulder. “My favorite sister. My only sister. My second mommy.”
I glanced over at Jayden, a million questions fighting to come out of my mouth at once. He nodded with a concerned expression, as if he knew what I was thinking.
“They were doing shots of Vodka earlier tonight in the kitchen,” he said grimly. “I was out here on the porch and I saw your sister come out here to throw up in the bushes. When I looked for her friends inside, they were gone. I figured it was better if I called you.”
Charlotte grabbed my shoulders so hard it almost hurt and squinted at my face. The strong scent of her breath made me wince. “Sarah said they’d be right back. But I waited and waited and waited.” She pouted her lower lip and pointed her thumb at Jayden. “I wanted to go find them, but this guy wouldn’t let me. He’s so mean.”
“Thank you for stopping her,” I said, shooting him a grateful look as she released me and began dancing around.
Regret flowed through me. I never should’ve left her alone at that party. This was my job and I’d failed. Jayden shouldn’t have had to stop her. I should’ve been able to handle this on my own.
The corners of my eyes burned with unshed tears. “And thank you for calling me. I don’t even want to think about what could’ve happened to her if she’d left like this.”
“Really, it was no problem.”
His searing gaze remained glued to my face, even as a single frustrated tear escaped and trailed down my cheek. I hated crying. It was even worse to know that I was crying in front of Jayden Paul. I felt pathetic.
But then he reached up and softly wiped it away with the pad of his thumb, his touch was as shocking as a live wire to the skin. It was paired with an intense blue-eyed stare that made my insides burn. I gasped, the feeling jolting me out of my moment of self-pity.
Jayden couldn’t be touching me like that. All it did was make me think about the way he’d kissed my palm. And make me wish for more.
With confusion swirling in my gut, I tore my gaze away from his and turned back toward Charlotte. “I’d b
etter get her home.”
My sister was waving at people through the porch window, giggling madly behind her hand. I put my arm around her and directed her toward the steps. She stumbled, most of her weight falling on my shoulder. I would’ve collapsed beneath the unexpected load if another arm hadn’t wrapped around her from the other side.
Jayden gave me a tiny smile as he helped me walk Charlotte down the porch steps and over to the van. And when we got her through the sliding door and buckled into one of the back seats, the sight of the sliding door closing on my drunk baby sister only served to increase the panic and guilt building up inside of me.
“I don’t know how I’m ever going to thank you,” I said to Jayden, my voice breaking. “I can’t believe I let her come out tonight. I should’ve stayed at the party. I should’ve checked in more. I don’t know how I’m going to tell my parents about this. They’re already so overwhelmed with everything at the diner. My mom has this heart condition that gets worse with stress and she’s been counting on me to keep everything at home running.”
Jayden leaned down slightly, until our gazes met. A steady calmness shone in his eyes. “It’s going to be okay. I promise. I’ve seen worse. She’ll wake up with a wicked hangover, but she’ll be okay.”
I nodded and sniffed, feeling some of the stress roll off my back. He was good at that. “I should get her home. The sooner the better. Then I can decide what to do.”
But as I took the keys out of my pocket, my hands were shaking so badly I nearly dropped them. Jayden’s steady hands cupped mine as he gently took the keys.
“You can’t drive like this. Let me take you guys home.”
“But what about your car?” I protested, looking up at him. He didn’t need to put himself out for us.
“I hitched a ride here with one of the guys tonight. And it’ll only take fifteen minutes to walk home from your place. I’m driving and that’s settled. Get in the van, Mandy.” His voice softened. “Please.”
My gaze met his and I realized that I didn’t stand a chance arguing against him. Not when I was this close to a total meltdown. So I walked around to the other side and hopped in the passenger seat.
On any other day, it would’ve been hilarious to see Rock Valley High’s varsity catcher climbing behind the wheel of a soccer-mom’s van, complete with the honor student bumper sticker on the back—if it hadn’t been for my little sister sitting plastered in the back seat.
He didn’t need directions to my place. He knew the way. I sat in grateful silence, leaning my head against the headrest as he drove us toward home.
“Mandy?” Charlotte’s high-pitched whine didn’t let me rest for long. “Does this mean I’m grounded?”
I clenched my fists in my lap, fighting so hard against the desire to ream her with a list of every selfish thing she’d ever done in her life, including tonight’s display. Still, I took a calming breath and maintained my composure.
“It means you need to find some better friends,” I said, turning to look at her. “Friends that don’t do shots and get drunk on school nights. And friends that don’t abandon their sick friend without caring what could happen to her.”
Charlotte crossed her arms and pouted, leaning back in her seat. The sight of her sitting like that instantly made me miss Audrey and Trina. I’d always known how lucky I was to have them, but I hadn’t realized exactly how much until I’d seen my sister so lonely and broken.
And as my gaze drifted over to the side of Jayden’s solemn face, I realized once again how lucky I was. He didn’t have to babysit Charlotte. He didn’t have to guard her from leaving and then call me. But he had. He was still surprising me.
I’d never realized guys like him existed in the world.
Or that, in two weeks, my heart could do a complete one-eighty on the guy I’d sworn to never fall for...
Chapter Sixteen
It was a good thing my parents both slept like rocks after their shifts, because getting my sister into the house without waking anyone up wasn’t an easy feat. Luckily, Jayden helped. We tucked Charlotte into my bed so I could keep an eye on her the whole night. I wasn’t going to make the mistake of leaving her again. The minute her head hit the pillow, it was like a switch went off. She was asleep and snoring so quickly that even I was impressed.
I walked Jayden back outside onto our front porch, desperate for a gulp of cool air to chase away the last of the adrenaline coursing through my veins. It felt like I’d aged a decade in less than an hour. How did people manage to raise teenagers without pulling out all of their hair?
“I really don’t know how to thank you enough,” I said, stuffing my hands into my hoodie pocket as I glanced over at Jayden. The sky was cloudy and the only light came from a streetlamp down the block. The rest of my quaint little suburban neighborhood was tucked up in bed and bathed in darkness. “You saved my bacon tonight.”
He smirked at me, the semi-light casting shadows across his face. “It was no problem. Really. I’m just glad I was in the right place at the right time.”
Leaning against the porch railing, I watched him take the steps down to the sidewalk. It felt so wrong, letting him leave like this. He’d been the hero of the day. He deserved a medal, a parade, or maybe even a town key. My thanks didn’t seem good enough. Not when Jayden had kept my little sister safe.
“Hey, can I ask you a question?” I asked suddenly.
He froze on the bottom step and turned toward me. “Sure.”
“Why weren’t you inside having a good time when Charlotte tried to leave?” My curiosity was getting the better of me. “There were probably a lot of baseball guys in there celebrating last night’s win. But you weren’t.”
His jaw hardened and he kept his gaze glued to the whitewashed boards of the porch floor. “I don’t drink, and honestly, the party tonight was kind of lame. I was ready to leave an hour before I ran into your sister.”
“It was a good thing you stuck around.” I rested my head against a pole. It was interesting to hear Jayden didn’t drink. I was sure there was a story there. “Can I ask, why don’t you like to drink?”
He exhaled loudly and shuffled his feet before looking up at me. “I don’t really like to talk about it much...”
Shoot—I’d gone too far. Just because we’d had some kind of heated moment today at the mall didn’t mean he owed me his life story. My cheeks heated and I put up my hands in surrender. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”
“No, it’s okay.” He took a step up and paused. “I don’t usually like talking about it with people. They can get all judgy. But you’re different. I can trust you.”
A warm sensation flooded my body and I chewed on the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. It felt strangely nice to have Jayden say he trusted me. I wanted to be sure to keep that trust as best as I could.
“My brother’s four years older than me,” he said, sitting on the top step of the porch and facing away from me. “When he was in high school, he started partying a little too hard. The first time I had to take him to the ER to get his stomach pumped, I was twelve. I shouldn’t even have been driving the car, but Mom and Dad were out of town for a business trip and my brother had made me swear not to call an ambulance. All those racing video games really paid off in that moment.”
I sat on the step beside him, my stomach turning to lead. Never would I have guessed that Jayden had been through something so tough. “That’s seriously intense. Is he still drinking?”
His forehead wrinkled in concentration. “My parents got him help, but it hasn’t been easy. He’s been in and out of rehab four times now. He even got kicked off the baseball team at State because of his addiction. But the good news is that he’s six months sober now and taking classes again, so there’s hope.”
All the comments Jayden had made about addictions and his family were starting to make sense. This secret was heavy. I couldn’t imagine having to carry that alone. I felt honored that he’d chosen to share it with
me.
Scooting closer to him, I bumped his shoulder gently and leaned slightly into him. “I’m glad he’s doing better. And I’m sorry you had to deal with all of that. It makes sense now why you don’t drink.”
“I know a lot of people can do it without a problem, but I’ve decided I’m never going to touch the stuff, even when I turn twenty-one.” He shot me a half-hearted smile. “Only green kale smoothies for me. Even if it makes me a health nut.”
I laughed softly, cradled my chin in my hands, and stared at the big oak tree standing in our yard. Jayden’s story had me more determined than ever to get my baby sister on the right path. I didn’t want that future for her. I had to be the big sister she needed to get her through this.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jayden sneak a glance at my face. “You know, the only reason I stuck around tonight was for the chance to see you again,” he said. “This wasn’t really what I had in mind, but I’ll take it.”
My pulse jumped at his words. I closed my eyes, wrapped my arms around my waist, and waited for the feeling to pass. But the electrifying touch of Jayden’s hand on mine only made it race harder. There was no ignoring the way he affected me, even if I wished with everything inside of me that I could. Falling for a guy like him could be dangerous. And distracting. Opening my eyes, I saw that he had turned toward me, his knees bumping against my thigh.
“At the mall today, you let slip that Audrey thinks you like me.” He looked down at our hands. The muscles in his jaw clenched and then relaxed. “Any chance that might be true?”
It was like the temperature outside had suddenly risen thirty degrees. I tugged on the neck of my hoodie, feeling the heat from my face spread to the rest of my body. The memory of pushing him up against the wall of that dressing room lit up my senses like a lightning storm. I could still feel the electricity between us, sense the heat of his body against mine, and taste the longing in the air.
Had that really only been today? What happened at the mall seemed like ages ago. But more importantly, was Audrey right?
Dare You to Fall for the Catcher Page 11